Congress's Non-Priority Immigration Reform

"New polling data from Gallup shows that an overwhelming majority of Americans do not think handling immigration reform is even close to a top priority for 2014," writes Matthew Boyle at Breitbart. (See Gallup poll graphic below)

In fact, only three percent of Americans think the issue is a priority that must be dealt with this year.

Despite the fact that most Americans clearly do not think Congress or President Barack Obama should consider immigration issues a priority in 2014, House Speaker John Boehner and the rest of House GOP leadership are currently considering them a priority.

The immigration/amnesty legislative priority, argues IBD, stems from an unholy alliance of business (the 208 major U.S. companies in The Business Roundtable) and politicians in Congress ("including many in the GOP leadership").

It's hard not to be cynical about this. Businesses like cheap labor. And politicians like political contributions from business. So they've formed an unholy alliance to push the idea that the costs of amnesty for illegals would outweigh the benefits. But they don't.

Last year, economists Robert Rector and Jason Richwine of the Heritage Foundation toted up the fiscal costs to U.S. taxpayers of unlawful immigrants and amnesty. They're staggering.

On average, the study found, the average illegal immigrant household costs U.S. taxpayers about $14,387 a year. All told, in 2010, the U.S. had a fiscal "deficit" — that is taxes collected vs. welfare spent — of $55 billion for illegal immigrant households.

Well, the argument goes, after amnesty they would become taxpayers, and those costs go away, right?

Wrong. In fact, the deficit per illegal household goes up to $28,000 after amnesty, or nearly $160 billion nationwide. And that's just for those illegals already here.

"Amnesty would provide unlawful households with access to over 80 means-tested welfare programs, ObamaCare, Social Security and Medicare," the authors note. "The fiscal deficit for each household would soar."

Gallup: Govt Itself Cited as Top U.S. Problem

If conservatives are unhappy with their leaders, imagine how unhappy liberal/progressives must be at what Obama and Democrat politicians are doing to them and their big-government-solves-all-problems ideology.

Gallup released its most recent poll results yesterday, and this chart was among them. One year ago — before Obamacare was implemented — only 4% of Americans thought "healthcare" was the most important US problem. Today, 16% think so.

"Dissatisfaction with government/Congress/politicians; poor leadership/corruption/abuse of power" now leads the pack, with 21% believing it is the nation's greatest problem.

Parker: A New Birth of American Freedom, Again

Noting a Gallup July 4th poll showing 71% of Americans think the Founders would be "disappointed" by the way the country has turned out, Star Parker argues that many Americans are living a contradiction: they hold the ideals of freedom while allowing those freedoms to be slowly eroded.

It is hard for me to believe that many in our country see no contradiction in believing that freedom can be an American ideal while half of Americans live in households getting some sort of government benefits.

Or that somehow a country can be thought of as free in which forty cents of every dollar the national economy produces goes to government at either the federal, state, or local level.

Or that government can put us in debt to the tune of the total value of the annual output of our economy.

Or that the real debt burden sitting on the American public is some $90 trillion – more than five times the size of our GDP – that represents the unfunded liabilities of social security, Medicare, and other government programs.

How can we see this as a free, moral country when we legally and casually use abortion as a means of birth control and provide hundreds of millions of taxpayer funds to Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider?

Or that government can tell us what kind of health care we need and must buy and can tell employers what kind of health care they must provide.

Or that government can force employers to provide birth control and abortion pills to employees, even, as in the case of the Christian owners of Hobby Lobby, it violates their religious convictions.

Or that children go to public schools where it is illegal to pray or teach traditional family values.

Parker calls for "courageous leadership that will lead us back to the path of freedom and moral principle that inspired our founders and which is our destiny."